Yahoo Sports Red Wings Fall Flat for 4-1 Loss in Los Angeles
The Detroit Red Wings entered Saturday night's game in Los Angeles in a precarious position. They weren't yet 24 hours removed from a 6-4 loss to the Ducks in Anaheim, and the Kings awaiting them sat well rested and in a playoff position. Compounding matters, Simon Edvinsson—whose night ended early against the Ducks following a shot block and apparent lower body injury—couldn't make it through warm-up, leaving him unable to help the Red Wing effort. Against those adverse circumstances, Detroit suffered the latest in a growing list of losses this season to which the word 'humbling' applies (the previous night's certainly on that list) by a 4-1 final score.
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In the first period, Los Angeles dominated the run of play, a rhythm that was set on the game's first shift. Edvinsson's absence left the Red Wings with a makeshift top defense pair of Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider. That duo started the game, and they weren't able to get off for a change for nearly three full minutes as Detroit couldn't get the puck out of its own end for long enough to swap out its defensemen.
For the bulk of the period, the Kings had a considerably easier time at both blue lines. They were more effective breaking out of their own end and bursting into the offensive zone than their opponents. For over 18 minutes, former King Cam Talbot did his best to stand up to the Los Angeles pressure, but with 1:55 to play in the first, his former team broke through. Mikey Anderson's third goal of the year made it 1-0, and just 20 seconds later, Tanner Jeannot doubled the advantage; both goals were the direct result of Red Wing turnovers springing the rush the other way. It was a scoreline that accurately reflected the Kings' control, but there was a sudden cruelty in the way the period slipped so quickly from difficult to disastrous.
The 2-0 edge heading into the second period allowed Los Angeles to adopt a more passive approach, sitting back to clog the neutral zone and turning the scraps they forced out of the Red Wings into offense the other way. As the game crossed its midpoint, the Kings held a 2-0 advantage on the scoreboard and even more commanding 24-7 lead by shots on goal. Neither side found the back of the net in the second, which suited the home side perfectly well heading into the third.
15 seconds into third, the Kings lost a defensive zone draw, but collapsed on a Detroit shot attempt, turned the puck over, and sprung their fastest skater for a breakaway from the blue line in. Having darted beyond all of the Red Wings' defense, Adrian Kempe buried the opportunity with a slick wrister over the should of Talbot, and Los Angeles—already in complete control of the game's terms and temp—took a 3-0 lead. For an offensively starved Detroit team, a two-goal third period deficit already felt like a momentous ask, and three goals rendered the remaining 19:45 moot.
With Cam Talbot pulled for an extra skater, captain Dylan Larkin spared the Red Wings from a shutout by burying a backhand from the slot off an Alex DeBrincat feed with 1:27 to play. Larkin's goal cut the score to 3-1, only for Kempe to strike the empty net 38 seconds later to restore the three-goal margin.
There are moments at which the Red Wings show signs of life: a clean rush from the top line, a spark of creativity in the offensive zone from Jonatan Berggren, or perhaps a crunching check from Seider. However, the sum of Detroit's parts Saturday night was nothing less than torpid.
The Red Wings were scrambling from the game's first shift and never able to mount any sort of sustained pushback toward Los Angeles' pressure. Now 7-9-1, it's gotten late early in Detroit, and though we haven't yet reached Thanksgiving, it feels as though the Red Wings face a 'must win' Monday night in San Jose, to avoid returning home 0-for-California.
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